CHICAGO -- Alexander Mogilny set up David Roberts' tying goal late in the third period, then scored the game-winner 84 seconds into overtime Wednesday night as the Vancouver Canucks rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Mogilny came out of the penalty box after serving a boarding penalty and picked up a loose puck at the Blackhawks' blue line. He carried into the right corner and skated along the goal line before feeding Roberts, who poked the puck under goaltender Jeff Hackett for his sixth goal of the season.
"I knew he was going hard to the net so I just went hard to the net and he hit my stick and I was able to get it back to Hackett," Roberts said. "It was good timing and nice to get that third goal."
Vancouver intercepted a clearing attempt early in overtime and Mark Wotton had the puck at the top of the left faceoff circle. He slid a pass under the stick of a Chicago defender to Mogilny, who lifted a backhander that tipped off Hackett's pad and just inside the right goalpost.
"I thought we played pretty poorly up until the third period," said Mogilny, who has three goals in his last five games. "We didn't play half as good as we should've tonight, we just picked it up, everybody did. It was a good game for us, a big divisional game (since) Calgary and Edmonton lost. It's always nice when you beat any team on the road."
Russ Courtnall had a pair of assists for the Canucks, who won for just the second time in their last 14 trips to Chicago. Vancouver moved one game over .500 for the first time since Dec. 11.
The Canucks had been 1-13-1 when trailing after two periods this season.
"It was a big character win. My only hope is that we don't think that we've arrived again and go out tomorrow night and think we can find a way to win," said Vancouver coach Tom Renney, whose Canucks play St. Louis on Thursday. "You have to outwork your opponent and do it in a fashion that you can find success. With the number of games we have left, I hope we can identify with how we have to win and maybe good things will continue to happen."
Kevin Miller tallied twice for the Blackhawks, who suffered their third straight loss.
"It's ridiculous to lose a game the way we lost that hockey game," Chicago coach Craig Hartsburg said. "Most of the game we played a good game, got a good effort, competed hard. Then we give them three goals because we don't want to compete in our own end. Two of them we gave up, their second and third goals, we just had guys standing around our net. When you make mistakes like that you deserve to lose.
"We just don't want to pay the price. We're right there standing beside people and letting them knock it into the net."
Miller opened the scoring 5:26 into the first period, but Vancouver tied it less than two minutes later on Leif Rohlin's second goal of the season.
Miller put Chicago ahead with a power-play tally midway through the second period and Jeff Shantz made it 3-1 at 17:13.
Mike Sillinger started the Canucks' comeback with a power-play marker with 31 seconds left in the period. He has seven goals in his last eight games.
"I thought we came out flat the first couple of periods," Roberts said, "but Sillinger's goal late in the second period was a real shot in the arm."
Eric Daze assisted on all three tallies for the Blackhawks, who fell to 13-4-5 when scoring three or more goals. Chicago also dropped to 10-3-2 when leading after two periods.
"(That's) an awful tough way to lose, it hurts," said Hawks defenseman Gary Suter. "When you've lost as many games as we've lost and the way we've lost them, confidence gets to be a factor. It seems like we're just out there trying to hold on at the end. That shouldn't happen the way we controlled the first couple of periods. We've all made our share of mistakes, it's been everybody in the lineup and that's the frustrating part."
Jon's 3 stars:
1. Tony Amonte
2. Eric Daze
3. Kirk McLean
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